According to the story, a unitedhuman race speaking a single language migrates toShinar (Lower Mesopotamia),[b] where they agree to build a great city with a tower that would reach the sky.Yahweh, observing these efforts and remarking on humanity's power in unity, confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other and scatters them around the world, leaving the city unfinished.
Some modern scholars have associated the Tower of Babel with known historical structures and accounts, particularly from ancient Mesopotamia. The most widely attributed inspiration isEtemenanki, aziggurat dedicated to the godMarduk inBabylon,[6] which inHebrew was calledBabel.[7] A similar story is also found in the ancientSumerian legend,Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, which describes events and locations in southern Mesopotamia.[8]
Etymology
The phrase "Tower of Babel" does not appear inGenesis nor elsewhere in theBible; it is always "the city and the tower"[c] or just "the city".[d] The original derivation of the name Babel, which is the Hebrew name forBabylon, is uncertain. The nativeAkkadian name of the city wasBāb-ilim, meaning 'gate of God'. However, that form and interpretation itself are now usually thought to derive from Akkadianfolk etymology applied to an earlier form of the name,Babilla, of unknown meaning and probably non-Semitic origin.[9][10]
Per the story in Genesis, the city received the name "Babel" from the Hebrew verbbālal,[e] meaning to jumble or to confuse, after Yahweh distorted the common language of humankind.[11] According toEncyclopædia Britannica, this reflectsword play due to the Hebrew terms for Babylon and "to confuse" having similar pronunciation.[7]
Analysis
Late medieval German depiction of the Tower being constructed, from a manuscript ofRudolf von Ems'Weltchronik, cgm 5 fol. 29r (c. 1370s)
Genre
The Tower of Babel is a type of myth known as anetiology, which is intended to explain the origin of a custom, ritual, geographical feature, name, or other phenomenon—namely the origins of the multiplicity of languages.[12]: 426 The confusion of tongues (Latin:confusio linguarum) resulting from the construction of the Tower of Babel accounts for the fragmentation of human languages: God was concerned that humans had blasphemed by building the tower to avoid a second flood and so God brought into existence multiple languages, rendering humanity unable to understand each other.[12]: 51
Prior to this event, humanity was stated to speak a single language, although the preceding Genesis 10:5 states that the descendants ofJapheth,Gomer, andJavan dispersed "with their own tongues".[13]Augustine of Hippo explained this apparent contradiction by arguing that the story "without mentioning it, goes back to tell how it came about that the one language common to all men was broken up into many tongues".[14] Modern scholarship has traditionally held that the two chapters were written by different sources, the former by thePriestly source and the latter by theJahwist. However, that theory has been debated among scholars in recent years.[15]
Themes
The story's theme of competition between God and humans appears elsewhere in Genesis, in the story ofAdam and Eve in theGarden of Eden.[16] The first century Jewish interpretation found inFlavius Josephus explains the construction of the tower as ahubristic act of defiance against God ordered by the arrogant tyrantNimrod.
There have been some contemporary challenges to this classical interpretation, with emphasis placed on the explicit motive of cultural and linguistic homogeneity mentioned in the narrative (11:1, 4, 6); this reading of the text sees God's actions not as a punishment for pride, but as an etiology ofcultural differences, presenting Babel as thecradle of civilization.[17]
Height
The Book of Genesis does not specify the tower's height; the phrase "its top in the sky" (11:4) was an idiom for impressive height, rather than implying arrogance.[17]: 37 TheBook of Jubilees 10:21 mentions the tower's height as being 5,433 cubits and 2 palms (2,484 m; 8,150 ft; 1.54 mi), about three times the height ofBurj Khalifa.
TheapocryphalThird Apocalypse of Baruch mentions that the "tower of strife" reached a height of 463 cubits (211.8 m; 695 ft), taller than any structure builtin human history until the construction of theEiffel Tower in 1889, which is 324 metres (1,060 ft) in height.
A typical medieval account is given byGiovanni Villani (1300): He relates that "it measured eighty miles [130 km] round, and it was already 4,000paces high [5.92 km; 3.68 mi] and 1,000 paces thick, and each pace is three of our feet."[20] The 14th-century travelerJohn Mandeville also included an account of the tower and reported that its height had been 64furlongs (13 km; 8 mi, according to the local inhabitants.
The 17th-century historianVerstegan provides yet another figure – quoting Isidore, he says that the tower was 5,164 paces high (7.6 km; 4.7 mi), and quoting Josephus that the tower was wider than it was high, more like a mountain than a tower. He also quotes unnamed authors who say that the spiral path was so wide that it contained lodgings for workers and animals, and other authors who claim that the path was wide enough to have fields for growinggrain for the animals used in the construction.
In his book,Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down,J. E. Gordon considers the height of the Tower of Babel. He wrote, "brick and stone weigh about 120 lb percubic foot (2,000 kg per cubic metre) and the crushing strength of these materials is generally rather better than 6,000 lbs per square inch or 40 mega-pascals. Elementary arithmetic shows that a tower with parallel walls could have been built to a height of 2.1 km (1.3 mi) before the bricks at the bottom were crushed. However, by making the walls taper towards the top they ... could well have been built to a height where the men of Shinnar would run short of oxygen and had difficulty in breathing before the brick walls crushed beneath their own dead weight."
Jewish and Christian tradition attributes the composition of the wholePentateuch, which includes the story of the Tower of Babel, toMoses. Modern biblical scholarship rejects Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch but is divided on the question of its authorship. Many scholars subscribe to some form of thedocumentary hypothesis, which argues that the Pentateuch is composed of multiple "sources" that were later merged. Scholars who favor this hypothesis, such asRichard Elliot Friedman, tend to see Genesis 11:1–9 as being composed by theJ or Jahwist/Yahwist source.[21]
Michael Coogan suggests that the intentional word play regarding the city of Babel, and the noise of the people's "babbling" is found in the Hebrew words as easily as in English, is considered typical of the Yahwist source.[12]: 51 John Van Seters, who has put forth substantial modifications to the hypothesis, suggests that these verses are part of what he calls a "Pre-Yahwistic stage".[22] Other scholars reject the documentary hypothesis altogether. The "minimalist" scholars tend to see the books of Genesis through 2 Kings as written by a single, anonymous author during theHellenistic period.
Historicity
Biblical scholars see the Book of Genesis asmythological and not as an historical account of events.[23] Genesis is described as beginning with historicized myth and ending with mythicized history.[24] Nevertheless, the story of Babel can be interpreted in terms of its context: Elsewhere in Genesis, it is stated that Babel (LXX: Βαβυλών) formed part ofNimrod's kingdom, which is located in Lower Mesopotamia.[25] The Bible does not specifically mention that Nimrod ordered the building of the tower, but many other sources have associated its construction with him.[26] Genesis 11:9 attributes theHebrew version of the name,Babel, to the verbbalal, which meansto confuse or confound in Hebrew.[27] The first century Roman-Jewish author Flavius Josephus similarly explained that the name was derived from the Hebrew wordBabel (בבל), meaning "confusion".[28]
Etemenanki (Sumerian: "temple of the foundation of heaven and earth") was the name of a ziggurat dedicated to Marduk in the city of Babylon. It was famously rebuilt by the 6th-century BCE Neo-Babylonian rulersNabopolassar andNebuchadnezzar II, but had fallen into disrepair by the time ofAlexander the Great's conquests. He managed to move the tiles of the tower to another location, but his death stopped the reconstruction, and it was demolished during the reign of his successorAntiochus Soter. Greek historianHerodotus (c. 484 – c. 425 BC) wrote an account of the ziggurat in hisHistories, which he called the "Temple ofZeus Belus".[29]
According to modern scholars, the biblical story of the Tower of Babel was likely influenced by Etemenanki.Stephen L. Harris proposed this occurred during theBabylonian captivity.[30]Isaac Asimov speculated that the authors of Genesis 11:1–9[31] were inspired by the existence of an apparently incomplete ziggurat at Babylon, and by the phonological similarity between BabylonianBab-ilu, meaning "gate of God", and the Hebrew wordbalal, meaning "mixed", "confused", or "confounded".[32]
Mesopotamian analogues
There are similar stories to the Tower of Babel. In theSumerian mythEnmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,[8]Enmerkar ofUruk is building a massiveziggurat inEridu and demands a tribute of precious materials fromAratta for its construction, at one point reciting an incantation imploring the godEnki to restore (or in Kramer's translation, to disrupt) the linguistic unity of the inhabited regions—named asShubur,Hamazi, Sumer,Uri-ki (Akkad), and theMartu land, "the whole universe, the well-guarded people—may they all address Enlil together in a single language."[33]
TheEridu Genesis, an ancient Sumerianflood myth, includes a passage about the unity of human speech before the gods intervened. During theNeo-Assyrian period, a fragmentary text found inNineveh, from thelibrary of Ashurbanipal (r. 668–627 BCE), which contains parts of the Eridu Genesis, along with the general interest Ashurbanipal's library had in preserving older traditions, suggest that these stories of language confusion and divine intervention were still relevant during this period.[34]
This is further evidenced by the Neo-Assyrian divine punishment motif often found in royal inscriptions, which describe the gods punishing nations for their arrogance, particularly through destruction, scattering, or confusion—a theme seen in the Tower of Babel story.[35]
In theannals of the Neo-Assyrian kingSennacherib (r. 705–681 BCE), he describes how the gods "confused the plans" of his enemies and scattered their forces, resulting in his victory and thedestruction of Babylon in 689 BCE. These events may have influenced later biblical writers during theperiod of Babylonian captivity, who viewed the city’s fall as a divine act, reinforcing the idea that Babylon’s pride led to its downfall.[36]
Later literature
Book of Jubilees
TheBook of Jubilees contains one of the most detailed accounts found anywhere of the Tower.
And they began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the clay with which they cemented them together was asphalt which comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shinar. And they built it: forty and three years were they building it; its breadth was 203 bricks, and the height [of a brick] was the third of one; its height amounted to 5433cubits and 2 palms, and [the extent of one wall was] thirteenstades [and of the other thirty stades].
— Jubilees 10:20–21, Charles' 1913 translation
Pseudo-Philo
InPseudo-Philo, the direction for the building is ascribed not only to Nimrod, who is made prince of theHamites, but also toJoktan, as prince of theSemites, and to Phenech son ofDodanim, as prince of theJaphetites. Twelve men are arrested for refusing to bring bricks, includingAbraham,Lot,Nahor, and several sons of Joktan. However, Joktan finally saves the twelve from the wrath of the other two princes.[37]
The Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus, in hisAntiquities of the Jews (c. 94 CE), recounted history as found in theHebrew Bible and mentioned the Tower of Babel. He wrote that it was Nimrod who had the tower built and that Nimrod was a tyrant who tried to turn the people away from God. In this account, God confused the people rather than destroying them because annihilation with a Flood had not taught them to be godly.
Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God as if it were through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government intotyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power... Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made ofbitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners [in the Flood]; but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion. TheSibyl also makes mention of this tower, and of the confusion of the language, when she says thus:—"When all men were of one language, some of them built a high tower, as if they would thereby ascend up to heaven; but the gods sent storms of wind and overthrew the tower, and gave everyone a peculiar language; and for this reason it was that the city was called Babylon."
Greek Apocalypse of Baruch
Third Apocalypse of Baruch (or 3 Baruch, c. 2nd century), one of thepseudepigrapha, describes the just rewards of sinners and the righteous in the afterlife.[16] Among the sinners are those who instigated the Tower of Babel. In the account, Baruch is first taken (in a vision) to see the resting place of the souls of "those who built the tower of strife against God, and the Lord banished them." Next he is shown another place, and there, occupying the form of dogs,
Those who gave counsel to build the tower, for they whom thou seest drove forth multitudes of both men and women, to make bricks; among whom, a woman making bricks was not allowed to be released in the hour of child-birth, but brought forth while she was making bricks, and carried her child in her apron, and continued to make bricks. And the Lord appeared to them and confused their speech, when they had built the tower to the height of four hundred and sixty-three cubits. And they took agimlet, and sought to pierce the heavens, saying, "Let us see (whether) the heaven is made of clay, or of brass, or of iron." When God saw this He did not permit them, but smote them with blindness and confusion of speech, and rendered them as thou seest.
— Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, 3:5–8
Midrash
Rabbinic literature offers many different accounts of other causes for building the Tower of Babel, and of the intentions of its builders. According to one midrash the builders of the Tower, called "the generation of secession" in the Jewish sources, said: "God has no right to choose the upper world for Himself, and to leave the lower world to us; therefore we will build us a tower, with an idol on the top holding a sword, so that it may appear as if it intended to war with God" (Gen. R.xxxviii. 7; Tan., ed. Buber, Noah, xxvii. et seq.).
The building of the Tower was meant to bid defiance not only to God, but also to Abraham, who exhorted the builders to reverence. The passage mentions that the builders spoke sharp words against God, saying that once every 1,656 years, heaven tottered so that the water poured down upon the earth, therefore they would support it by columns that there might not be another deluge (Gen. R. l.c.; Tan. l.c.; similarly Josephus, "Ant." i. 4, § 2).
Some among that generation even wanted to war against God in heaven (Talmud Sanhedrin 109a). They were encouraged in this undertaking by the notion that arrows that they shot into the sky fell back dripping with blood, so that the people really believed that they could wage war against the inhabitants of the heavens (Sefer ha-Yashar, Chapter 9:12–36). According to Josephus and Midrash Pirke R. El. xxiv., it was mainly Nimrod who persuaded his contemporaries to build the Tower, while other rabbinical sources assert, on the contrary, that Nimrod separated from the builders.[26]
According to another midrashic account, one third of the Tower builders were punished by being transformed into semi-demonic creatures and banished into three parallel dimensions, inhabited now by their descendants.[38]
TheQuran has no story about the Tower of Babel. However, similar stories appear in theQisas al-Anbiya. Although variations similar to the biblical narrative of the Tower of Babel exist within Islamic tradition, the central theme of God separating humankind on the basis of language is alien to Islam according to the authorYahiya Emerick. In Islamic belief, he argues, God created nations to know each other and not to be separated.[39]
In theHistory of the Prophets and Kings by the 9th-century Muslim theologianal-Tabari, a fuller version is given: Nimrod has the tower built in Babil, God destroys it, and the language of mankind, formerlySyriac, is then confused into 72 languages. A tale about Babel appears more fully in the writings ofYaqut (i, 448 f.) and theLisān al-ʿArab [ar] (xiii. 72), but without the tower: mankind were swept together by winds into the plain that was afterward called "Babil", where they were assigned their separate languages by God, and were then scattered again in the same way. Another Muslim historian of the 13th century,Abu al-Fida relates the same story, adding that the patriarchEber (an ancestor of Abraham) was allowed to keep the original tongue,Hebrew in this case, because he would not partake in the building.[26]
Book of Mormon
In theBook of Mormon, a man namedJared and his family ask God that their language not be confounded at the time of the "great tower". Because of their prayers, God preserves their language and leads them to theValley of Nimrod. From there, they travel across the sea to the Americas.[40]
Despite no mention of the Tower of Babel in the original text of the Book of Mormon, some leaders inthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) assert that the "great tower" was indeed the Tower of Babel – as in the 1981 introduction to the Book of Mormon – despite the chronology of theBook of Ether aligning more closely with the 21st century BC Sumerian tower temple myth ofEnmerkar and the Lord of Aratta to the goddessInnana.[41] Church apologists have also supported this connection and argue the reality of the Tower of Babel: "Although there are many in our day who consider the accounts of the Flood and tower of Babel to be fiction, Latter-day Saints affirm their reality."[42] In either case, the church firmly believes in the factual nature of at least one "great tower" built in the region of ancient Sumer/Assyria/Babylonia.
Gnosticism
InGnostic tradition recorded in theParaphrase of Shem, a tower, interpreted as the Tower of Babel, is brought by demons along with thegreat flood:
And he caused the flood, and he destroyed your (Shem's) race, to take the light and to take away from faith. But I proclaimed quickly by the mouth of the demon that a tower come up to be up to the particle of light, which was left in the demons and their race – which was water – that the demon might be protected from the turbulent chaos. And the womb planned these things according to my will, that she might pour forth completely. A tower came to be through the demons. The darkness was disturbed by his loss. He loosened the muscles of the womb. And the demon who was going to enter the tower was protected so that the races might continue to acquire coherence through him.[43]
For a long time,historical linguistics wrestled with the idea of asingle original language. In the Middle Ages and down to the 17th century, attempts were made to identify a living descendant of the Adamic language.
The literal belief that the world's linguistic variety originated with the tower of Babel ispseudolinguistics and is contrary to the known facts about the origin andhistory oflanguages.[44][page needed]
In the biblical introduction of the Tower of Babel account, in Genesis 11:1,[45] it is said that everyone on Earth spoke the same language, but this is inconsistent with the biblical description of the post-Noahic world described in Genesis 10:5,[46] where it is said that the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth gave rise to different nations, each with their own language.[3]: 26
There have also been a number of traditions around the world that describe a divine confusion of the one original language into several, albeit without any tower. Aside from the Ancient Greek myth thatHermes confused the languages, causingZeus to give his throne toPhoroneus, Frazer specifically mentions such accounts among the Wasania ofKenya, the KachaNaga people of Assam, the inhabitants ofEncounter Bay in Australia, theMaidu of California, theTlingit of Alaska, and theK'iche' Maya of Guatemala.[47]
TheEstonian myth of "the Cooking of Languages"[48] has also been compared.
During the Middle Ages, theHebrew language was widely considered the language used by God to addressAdam inParadise, and by Adam as lawgiver (theAdamic language) by various Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholastics.
Dante Alighieri addresses the topic in hisDe vulgari eloquentia (1302–1305). He argues that the Adamic language is of divine origin and therefore unchangeable.[49]
In hisDivine Comedy (c. 1308–1320), however, Dante changes his view to another that treats the Adamic language as the product of Adam.[49] This had the consequence that it could no longer be regarded as immutable, and hence Hebrew could not be regarded as identical with the language of Paradise. Dante concludes (Paradiso XXVI) that Hebrew is a derivative of the language of Adam. In particular, the chief Hebrew name for God in scholastic tradition,El, must be derived of a different Adamic name for God, which Dante gives asI.[49]
Before the acceptance of theIndo-Europeanlanguage family, these languages were considered to be "Japhetite" by some authors (e.g.,Rasmus Rask in 1815; seeIndo-European studies). Beginning in Renaissance Europe, priority over Hebrew was claimed for the alleged Japhetic languages, which were supposedly never corrupted because their speakers had not participated in the construction of the Tower of Babel. Among the candidates for a living descendant of the Adamic language were:Gaelic (seeAuraicept na n-Éces);Tuscan (Giovanni Battista Gelli, 1542,Pier Francesco Giambullari, 1564);Dutch (Goropius Becanus, 1569,Abraham Mylius, 1612);Swedish (Olaus Rudbeck, 1675);German (Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, 1641,Schottel, 1641). The Swedish physicianAndreas Kempe wrote a satirical tract in 1688, where he made fun of the contest between the European nationalists to claim their native tongue as the Adamic language. Caricaturing the attempts by the Swede Olaus Rudbeck to pronounce Swedish the original language of mankind, Kempe wrote a scathingparody where Adam spokeDanish, God spoke Swedish, and the serpentFrench.[50]
The primacy of Hebrew was still defended by some authors until the emergence of modern linguistics in the second half of the 18th century, e.g. byPierre Besnier [fr] (1648–1705) inA philosophicall essay for the reunion of the languages, or, the art of knowing all by the mastery of one (1675) and by Gottfried Hensel (1687–1767) in hisSynopsis Universae Philologiae (1741).
The tradition of 72 languages persisted into later times. BothJosé de Acosta in his 1576 treatiseDe procuranda indorum salute, andAntónio Vieira a century later in hisSermão da Epifania, expressed amazement at how much this 'number of tongues' could be surpassed, there being hundreds of mutually unintelligible languages indigenous only to Peru and Brazil.
InGreek mythology, much of which was adopted by theRomans, there is a myth referred to as theGigantomachy, the battle fought between the Giants and the Olympian gods for supremacy of the cosmos. InOvid's telling of the myth, the Giants attempt to reach the gods in heaven by stacking mountains, but are repelled byJupiter's thunderbolts. A.S. Kline translates Ovid'sMetamorphoses 1.151–155 as:[51]
Rendering the heights of heaven no safer than the earth, they say the giants attempted to take the Celestial kingdom, piling mountains up to the distant stars. Then the all-powerful father of the gods hurled his bolt of lightning, fractured Olympus and threw Mount Pelion down from Ossa below.
Mexico
Various traditions similar to that of the tower of Babel are found in Latin America. Some writers[who?] connected theGreat Pyramid of Cholula to the Tower of Babel. TheDominican friarDiego Durán (1537–1588) reported hearing an account about the pyramid from a hundred-year-old priest at Cholula, shortly after theconquest of the Aztec Empire. He wrote that he was told when the light of the Sun first appeared upon the land, giants appeared and set off in search of the Sun. Not finding it, they built a tower to reach the sky. An angered God of the Heavens called upon the inhabitants of the sky, who destroyed the tower and scattered its inhabitants. The story was not related to either a flood or the confusion of languages, although Frazer connects its construction and the scattering of the giants with the Tower of Babel.[52]
Another story, attributed by the native historianFernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxóchitl (c. 1565–1648) to the ancientToltecs, states that after men had multiplied following a great deluge, they erected a tallzacuali or tower, to preserve themselves in the event of a second deluge. However, their languages were confounded and they went to separate parts of the Earth.[53]
Arizona
Still another story, attributed to theTohono O'odham people, holds thatMontezuma escaped a great flood, then became wicked and attempted to build a house reaching to heaven, but the Great Spirit destroyed it with thunderbolts.[54][55]
According toDavid Livingstone, the people he met living nearLake Ngami in 1849 had such a tradition, but with the builders' heads getting "cracked by the fall of the scaffolding".[57]
Other traditions
In his 1918 book,Folklore in the Old Testament, Scottish social anthropologist SirJames George Frazer documented similarities between Old Testament stories, such as the Flood, and indigenous legends around the world. He identified Livingston's account with a tale found inLozi mythology, wherein the wicked men build a tower of masts to pursue the Creator-God, Nyambe, who has fled to Heaven on a spider-web, but the men perish when the masts collapse. He further relates similar tales of theAshanti that substitute a pile of porridge pestles for the masts. Frazer moreover cites such legends found among theKongo people, as well as inTanzania, where the men stack poles or trees in a failed attempt to reach the Moon.[52] He further cited theKarbi andKuki people ofAssam as having a similar story. The traditions of theKaren people ofMyanmar, which Frazer considered to show clear 'Abrahamic' influence, also relate that their ancestors migrated there following the abandonment of a greatpagoda in the land of theKarenni 30 generations from Adam, when the languages were confused and the Karen separated from the Karenni. He notes yet another version current in theAdmiralty Islands, where mankind's languages are confused following a failed attempt to build houses reaching to heaven.
In popular culture
The "Babel fish" is a fictional fish inDouglas Adams' novelThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which can be placed in someone's ear for them to instantly understand anything said to them in any form of language.Yahoo used this as a base for their "Yahoo! Babel Fish" online translation service.
Pieter Brueghel's influential portrayal is based on theColosseum in Rome, while later conical depictions of the tower (as depicted in Doré's illustration) resemble much later Muslim towers observed by 19th-century explorers in the area, notably theMinaret of Samarra.M.C. Escher depicts a more stylized geometrical structure inhis woodcut representing the story.
American choreographerAdam Darius staged a multilingual theatrical interpretation ofThe Tower of Babel in 1993 at theICA in London.
Fritz Lang's 1927 filmMetropolis, in a flashback, plays upon themes of lack of communication between the designers of the tower and the workers who are constructing it. The short scene states how the words used to glorify the tower's construction by its designers took on totally different, oppressive meanings to the workers. This led to its destruction as they rose up against the designers because of the insufferable working conditions. The appearance of the tower was modeled afterBrueghel's 1563 painting.[58]
The political philosopherMichael Oakeshott surveyed historic variations of the Tower of Babel in different cultures[59] and produced a modern retelling of his own in his 1983 book,On History.[60] In his retelling, Oakeshott expresses disdain for human willingness to sacrifice individuality, culture, and quality of life for grand collective projects. He attributes this behavior to fascination with novelty, persistent dissatisfaction, greed, and lack of self-reflection.[61]
A. S. Byatt's novelBabel Tower (1996) is about the question "whether language can be shared, or, if that turns out to be illusory, how individuals, in talking to each other, fail to understand each other".[62]
Science fiction writerTed Chiang wrote a story called "Tower of Babylon" that imagined a miner's climbing the tower all the way to the top where he meets the vault of heaven.[63]
In the 1990 Japanese television animeNadia: The Secret of Blue Water, the Tower of Babel is used by the Atlanteans as an interstellar communication device.[65] Later in the series, the Neo Atlanteans rebuild the Tower of Babel and use its communication beam as a weapon of mass destruction. Both the original and the rebuilt tower resembles the paintingTower of Babel by artistPieter Bruegel the Elder.
2017 comic bookLa tour de Bab-El-Oued (The tower of Bab-El-Oued) fromSfar'sThe Rabbi's Cat series refers to the Tower of Babel in a context of intercultural conflict and cooperation (Jews and Muslims during the French colonization in Algeria).[66]
In the video gameDoshin the Giant, the final monument the island inhabitants can create is called the Tower of Babel,[67] which begins to sink the island. The titular Doshin the Giant then sacrifices himself to save the island.
The 2006 filmBabel interweaves the unfortunate circumstances of a Moroccan, an American, a Mexican, and a Japanese family through a series of miscommunications.
^abLevenson, Jon D. (2004). "Genesis: Introduction and Annotations". In Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (eds.).The Jewish Study Bible. Oxford University Press. p. 29.ISBN978-0-195-29751-5.
^abHiebert, Theodore (2007). "The Tower of Babel and the Origin of the World's Cultures".Journal of Biblical Literature.126 (1):29–58.doi:10.2307/27638419.JSTOR27638419.
^Friedman, Richard Elliot (1997).Who Wrote the Bible?. Simon & Schuster. p. 247.ISBN0-06-063035-3.
^Van Seters, John (1975).Abraham in History and Tradition. Echo Point Books & Media. p. 313.ISBN978-1-62654-006-4.
^Levenson 2004, p. 11 "How much history lies behind the story of Genesis? Because the action of the primeval story is not represented as taking place on the plane of ordinary human history and has so many affinities with ancient mythology, it is very far-fetched to speak of its narratives as historical at all."
^Moye, Richard H. (1990). "In the Beginning: Myth and History in Genesis and Exodus".Journal of Biblical Literature.109 (4): 580.doi:10.2307/3267364.JSTOR3267364.
^"Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta: composite text."Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Line145f.: an-ki ningin2-na ung3 sang sig10-ga den-lil2-ra eme 1-am3 he2-en-na-da-ab-dug4.
^Frame, Grant (1992).Babylonia 689-627 B.C: a political history. Uitgaven van het Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te İstanbul. Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul.ISBN978-90-6258-069-9.
^abcMazzocco, Angelo (1993).Linguistic Theories in Dante and the Humanists. Brill. pp. 159–181.ISBN978-90-04-09702-5.
^Olender, Maurice (1992).The Languages of Paradise: Race, Religion, and Philology in the Nineteenth Century. Trans.Arthur Goldhammer. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press.ISBN0-674-51052-6.
^Dorschel, Andreas (25 November 2004). "Ach, Sie waren nicht in Oxford? Antonia S. Byatts Roman "Der Turm zu Babel"".Süddeutsche Zeitung 274 (in German). p. 16.
_-_Google_Art_Project_-_edited.jpg)
.jpg)
